Recipe Courtesy Dave Burnett, Joel Rousell, Steven Moore from Man Made Food.
Directions for: Poached Pears with Cardamom Cookies
Ingredients
Poached Pears8 semi-ripe pears, peeled and cored
2 bottle red wine (in total 6 cups/1.5 litres)
1 cup honey (250 ml)
6 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
Cardamom Short Bread Cookies1 pound + 2 ounces soft unsalted butter (511 grams)
1 Tbsp vanilla extract (15 ml)
6 oz icing sugar (170 grams)
12 oz bread flour (340.5 grams)
6 oz rice flour (170 grams)
tsp salt (2 ml)
2 Tbsp toasted and ground cardamom (10 ml)
AssemblyVanilla ice cream, for serving
Directions
Poached Pears1. In a heavy stainless steel saucepan, over medium-high heat, combine wine, honey and thyme and bay leaf. Bring to a boil.
2. Add the pears to the poaching liquid. Reduce the heat so liquid is barely simmering. Cut a round of parchment paper that fits the diameter of the pot. Cover the pears with a round of parchment paper.
3. Poach the pears until just tender when pierced with a knife, about 15 to 20 minutes (cooking time will depend on how ripe the pear is).
4. Remove saucepan from the heat. Let pears cool in the poaching liquid. Refrigerate pears in the poaching liquid overnight so that the pears get totally saturated with the ruby redness of the wine.
5. The next day, remove the pears from the poaching liquid. Set pears aside back in the refrigerator. Transfer the poaching liquid in a heavy stainless steel saucepan. Cook the poaching liquid over medium-high heat until syrupy and reduces to cup. Cool the syrup.
Cardamom Short Bread Cookies1. Add rice flour, bread flour, salt and cardamom in a bowl and mix to combine.
2. Cream the butter, icing sugar and vanilla with an electric hand mixer until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed. Refrigerate the dough for at least 30 minutes.
3. Work by hand until pliable and dough is soft. Roll dough on a lightly floured surface to about 1/8-inch thickness. Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
5. Bake cookies until golden, about 15 to 20 minutes. Makes 16 cookies.
Assembly1. Serve the poached pears with the reduced poaching liquid, a scoop of ice cream and a cookie.
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